Measuring progress with GDP is a gross mistake

It's a strange way to measure either economic or social well-being. The GDP was developed as a way to estimate economic activity by measuring the value of all transactions for goods and services. But even Simon Kuznets , an American economist and pioneer of national income measurement, warned in 1934 that such measurements say little about 'the welfare of a nation.' He understood there's more to life than the benefits that come from spending money. My wife's parents have shared our home for 35 years. If we had put them in a care home, the GDP would have grown. In caring for them ourselves we didn't contribute as much. When my wife left her teaching job at Harvard University to be a full-time volunteer for the David Suzuki Foundation, her GDP contribution fell. Each time we repair and reuse something considered disposable we fail to contribute to the GDP. To illustrate the ...